Apparatus for building or covering balloons.



M. VANIMAN. APPARATUS FOR BUILDING 0R COVERING BALLOONS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.19,1912.

Patented D60. 16, 1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

pm 8mm M. VANIMAN.

APPARATUS FOR BUILDING 0R COVERING BALLOONS.

APPLICATION FILED MARJQ, 1912.

1,081,793, Patented Dec. 16, 1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET Z.

COLUMBIA PLANDORAPH'CQ.; WASHINGTON, D. c.

M. VANIMAN.

APPARATUS FOR BUILDING 0R COVERING BALLOONS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 19, 1912 Patented Dec. 16, 1913.

WITNESSES /@-4- ATTORNEY COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPM c0., WASHINGTON. D. c.

STATES; ATEN Flfilll.

MELVIN VANIIVIAN, OF ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO INTERNATIONAL AERONAUTICAL CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, A CORPORATION 013 MAINE.

APPARATUS FOR BUILDING OR COVERING BALLOONS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELVIN VANIMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Atlantic City, in the county of Atlantic and State of New Jersey, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Building or Covering Balloons, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus for building or covering large balloons of the non-rigid type. The balloons of the sizes I am considering, up to live hundredfeet in length, have been built, if at all, in the flat, on the floor of a shop. It has also been proposed to wind balloons of lesser size upon a solid form or mandrel, much after the fashion common in paper tube making.

In my invention I use an inflated bag, of the size and shape of the balloon to be built, as the form and either ultimately incorporate the same thereinto as part of the balloon structure or remove it. This inflated bag I mount upon a series of endless belts running at right angles to the axis of the balloon, each endless belt forming a flexible bed for a portion of the bottom of the balloon and being mounted upon a pair of rolls whose axes are parallel to each other and the balloon axis and which are supported. on bearings secured to the floor of the factory. Upon an inflated form so mounted, it will be a simple operation to apply the longitudinal strips which run from one end of the balloon to the other and which, taken together, constitute one layer of the balloon structure such as shown in my application 674,009, filed January 29th, 1912, for the making of which my apparatus is particularly adapted.

In order to supply the balloon with the helical covering constituting the outer layer of the balloon shown in the above-mentioned application, I provide a carriage running upon tracks on the floor parallel to the balloon upon which is mounted a roller carrying the fabric to be wound, the said roller having the necessary skew to give the proper angle of wind to the layers of the spiral. I also provide a common operating mechanism for both feeding the fabric-carrying carriage along the tracks and for rotating the rolls which support the flexible belt carrying the balloon at proper relative speeds so that, as the fabric roll moves lengthwise of the balloon, this is caused to rotate at the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 19, 1912.

Patented Dec. 16, 1913.

Serial No. 684,825.

proper angular speed to lay the several turns of the helix of fabric in position thereon with their edges nicely juxtaposed.

Upon the carriage, which is really a trestle structure or frame passing over and around the balloon and supported on tracks on each side thereof, I mount not only the feed roll carrying the fabric but also the various devices necessary to coat the balloon with the cementing substances to be applied thereto so as to cause the inner layers of the balloon and the helical layer being wound thereon to adhere. That is to say, I supply a coating roll for supplying, from a reservoir, a tacky substance to the balloon fabric and a drier for partially drying this tacky substance to the proper consistency. I may also mount electrically operated vuleanizing rolls upon this carriage. When I add that upon the inside of the balloon I provide what is, in effect, a type of self propelled vehicle, of which the front and back Wheels ride upon the balloon fabric at points opposite to the rolls which trry the supporting belt, it will be seen that I furnish a device whereby the layer which is being wound upon the under layers of the balloon can be effectively smoothed down upon and put into such intimate connection therewith as is necessary to effect a firm and wrinkle or crease-free cementation of the layers.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of my apparatus showing the inflated form or balloon and the helical layer being wound thereon. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, with the floor in section; Fig. 3 is a detail showing the electrically operated compressing and smoothing carriage and rolls; Fig. 1- is a plan, the balloon being in dotted lines, showing the common operating mechanism for securing the carriage feed and balloon rotation; Fig. 5 is a detail of the apparatus for giving the skew to the fabric feed-roll; Fig. (3 is a vertical crossscction of the apparatus with a vulcanizing chamber; Fig. 7 is a side elevation showing a vulcanizer for the tip and also a set of smoothing rolls on a llexible shaft; Fig. 8 is a detail showing how the smoothing rolls are mounted on the outer shell of the vulcanizing chamber, and Fig. 9 is a detail of such shell.

Upon a floor A I mount a series of pairs of rolls I), supported in bearings PF. 13elow the floor there are a series of pairs of rolls B The alined series of supporting belts B pass around the rolls B and B in a manner easy to understand, with an amount of slack sufficient to furnish a curved bed for the bottom of the balloon. I have, thus far, described a movable bed for supporting and rotating the inflated balloon structure. Blocks 13*, each having a curved upper face, are placed between the rolls B so that the workman inside of the balloon may step upon the fabric Without danger of tearing it. In order to cover the gap between the several belts, I mount bridging rolls B upon bearings located at these points and supported from the bearings B It will be understood that the rolls B on one side of the balloon have a common operating shaft B which is connected by bevel gearing to a shaft B driven by a motor B and that the shaft B through a gear thereon, drives endless bands 13 supported on band-supporting rolls B in the manner illustrated. \V'e see, therefore, that the operation of the motor B causes the carriage C, to which the bands 13 are attached, to move lengthwise of the balloon at the same time that the shafts B are turned to rotate the rollers B and thus give motion to the belts l to rotate the balloon. As before indicated, the relation of the gearing is such as to make these two motions of the proper relative speed.

The carriage C is built in the form of a trestle which surrounds the balloon and has wheels C supporting it upon tracks C For some purposes I use a vulcanizing roller C mounted upon the carriage, cooperating with a roller on the compressing and smoothing carriage, and for other purposes I dispense with these vulcanizing rolls. So, too, I mount on the carriage a roller C which gathers 011 its surface a. tacky or sticky cement from a reservoir C and applies it to the balloon surface. A drier C having an are shaped extension 0 is mounted on the carriage C a little farther along in the direct-ion of rotation. Since it is often desirable to apply a second coating of this tacky substance, I may employ a second roller C and a second heate' C C. For some purposes I also use a roller C for supplying vulcanizable ingredients at the point indicated.

The fabric roller D is mounted on the carriage C in a manner to make possible a nice adjustment of it both longitudinally of the balloon, in order that the edge of the tur of the helix of fabric being applied may make a tight oint with the edge of the turn of fabric already applied, and also to make possible its adjustment to give the necessary skew, so that any inequality r irregularity of the common operating mechanism for producing rotary motion of the balloon and longitudinal motion of the carriage may be memes adjusted for. In view of the great length of the balloon, this feature is most important. To this end the bearings of the roller D are mounted upon a turntable D which is in turn mounted on a vertical axis pivoting in the floor of the carriage C. The turntable is provided with teeth on its outer surface and is rotated by means of a cog D operated by a shaft D In this way there can be put the exact angle of skew or twist on the fabric-carrying roll which is necessary. The fabric-carrying roll, however, is not mounted rigidly upon the turntable D but its bearing D slides radially thereon, such sliding motion being caused by a screw D and a hand wheel D for operating the screw through a set of beveled gears. In this way if, at any moment, the layer of fabric about to go on the balloon is not in exactly the correct position with reference to the edge of the layer already wound, the needed alinement can be produced by op erating the hand wheel The smoothing and compressing carriage on the inside of the balloon carries a motor E which is run to turn the roller E at a surface speed equal to the speed which the belt B gives to the inner surface of the balloon fabric against which the roller I1 presses. The roller is capable of being put on a slant and is in effect a steering roll which will give the necessary motion to the carriage in a direction longitudinally of the balloon.

The operation of my device or the method of building a balloon by its aid will now be obvious. I first take a balloon structure G, put it in position upon the belts B and infiate it with into its cylindrical shape. In order to apply the longitudinal strips of fabric, if any such are to be applied, it will merely be'necessary to paste these upon the gas bag by the use of appropriate cement ing material. The consolidation or compression of each longitudinal st "ip upon and its cementation to the layer of balloon fabric G therebelow can be finally effected by rotating the balloon until the outer layer just applied comes over the curved blocks B, when a workman on the inside of the balloon, by the use of appropriate rollers, can cause the desired adherence of the parts.

To apply the spiral winding, I proceed as indicated in the above description of the apparatus. The fabric II comes off the fabric roller and passes under the electric light I which is strong enough to make the balloon translucent, to make it possible to see the operation. The fabric I-I then passes between the endless belt B and the roller E and thereupon between this belt and the roller E on the smoothing and compressing carriage. The operation of these two rollers E and E in connection with the belt B and the rollers B on which the belts are mounted causes that firm adherence of the layer of fabric to the layer upon which it is being cemented without any air bubbles or wrinkles all of which is indispensable in constructing a balloon of this type.

I have already mentioned that a tacky sub stance is applied to the balloon by a roller (1", that it is partially dried at O and that another coating of tacky substance may be applied by a second set of these devices. it appears then that when the fabric H is being fed upon the balloon, it is fed upon a portion of it which is properly supplied with a cementing layer of just the right consistency to be effective.

If it be desired to vulcanize the layers ap plied to the balloon to each other or to the inner gas bag, it will merely be necessary to select a vulcanizing compound as the tacky substance above referred to. In addition I mount the outer shell L of the vulcanizing chamber upon the carriage O and the inner shell L of this chamber upon arms L rising from the carriage E, the motor E acting as a counter-weight. It will be clear that the vulcanizing chamber is to be heated to vulcanizing heat by appropriate devices and that it is broad enough measured along the balloon axis so that it may, if desired, take across several widths of the fabric being wound. The ends of the balloon will be vulcanized by supplying a pair of plates V, V" constituting a vul canizing chamber. A flexible shaft V* carries rolls V mounted upon pairs of rolls V supported in brackets V secured to the outer shell V. These rolls, like the rolls B, cooperate with suitable rolls carried on the inside of the balloon and act as smoothing devices to iron out the wrinkles and to compact the layers.

Although I have described my apparatus as particularly suitable for building a balloon of the kind shown in my application No. 674,009, filed January 29th, 1912, it will be understood that it is equally applicable for building balloons in which a helical layer of fabric is to be wound upon an inflated structure whether or not this structure remains part of the balloon or is ultimately withdrawn.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a series of pairs of rollers, an alined series of endless belts on the rollers rotatably supporting the inflated balloon structure, and curved blocks conforming in shape to the slack of the belts to furnish a floor for the workmen in the balloon, substantially as described.

2. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a movable bed for supporting and rotating the inflated balloon structure,

a smoothing and compressing carriage on the inside of the balloon, and a fabric-feed roll, whereby the new fabric as it is fed on the balloon is brought into intimate contact with the balloon fabric through the cooperation of the movable bed and compressing carriage, substantially as described.

3. An apparatus foubuilding balloons, comprising a series of pairs of rollers, an alined series of endless belts on the rollers rotatably supporting the inflated balloon structure, and a smoothing and compressing carriage on the inside of the balloon carrying rolls to smooth and iron the layers of fabric between the rollers and the rolls, substantially as described.

1. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a series of pairs of rollers, an alined series of endless belts on the rollers rotatably supporting the inflated balloon structure, a smoothing and compressing carriage on the inside of the balloon carrying rolls, and a motor geared to one of the rolls to drive the same at the requisite surface speed to cause the carriage to maintain its position, substantially as described.

5. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a series of pairs of rollers, an alined series of endless belts on the rollers rotatably supporting the inflated balloon structure, and a smoothing and compressing carriage on the inside of the balloon carryinga steering roll to give the carriage the requisite trend longitudinally considered, substantially as described.

6. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a movable bed for supporting and rotating the inflated balloon structure, and a longitiulinally movable carriage carrying a device for applying a tacky substance to the balloon, and a device for partially drying the same, sul'istantially as described.

7. An apparatus for building balloons, comprising a movable bed for supporting and rotating the inflated balloon structure, a longitudinally movable carriage carrying a shell of a vuleanizin chamber, and a earriage on the inside of the balloon carrying the coiipera ting shell of the vulcanizing chamber, substantially as described.

8. An appinratus for building elongated balloons comprising an inflatable and deflatable forming bag, a rotary support therefor and a fabric feed substantially as de scribed.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

M 1*] LV 1 N VAN I'M A N.

\Vitnesses \V. J. lnssmo, LOUIIILLA l Lrr'rmi.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington. D. G. 

